Lesesaal

Ennead II.9 [33]: Against the Gnostics

Plotinus

The manuscripts title it "Against those who say that the maker of the world is evil and the world is evil"; Porphyry states (Life 16) that he himself gave it the title "Against the Gnostics". It is the conclusion of the great treatise divided by Porphyry into four parts (III.8, V.8, V.5 and II.9). Plotinus defends the beauty and goodness of the sensible cosmos, image of the intelligible, against Gnostics who attended his school, and reproaches them for multiplying hypostases and despising the world and the ancient philosophers.